Yahoo! Singapore Answers blog

Managing our finances has never been so important than it is today, but to a certain degree it has become complicated as well for many.  There are so many financial options and decisions to make that it can be confusing for some.

The Answers Community was fortunate to have CIMB post some very interesting questions that made us stop and think twice about our finances and how to effectively manage them by the decisions we make.  The questions received a lot of good answers but of course, there can be only one best answer.  Here’s a summary of the Q&A that took place, I hope we all learn from this:

Question 1: What were the biggest barriers to financing your new home & how did you deal with it?

“Ask Me” shared that financing a new home is not just about making the down-payment, there are other expenses to consider like utilities, furnishings, etc.  The barrier he/she had to deal with is ensuring he/she has enough financially to take care of everything and not be burdened by debts.

According to CIMB, this is a prudent approach to the issue.  Be realistic about the loans you need and look out for the following in home loans: flexibility and range of loan packages (comparing amount and tenure), as well as fast turnaround so you can be assured of prompt approval processes.

Question 2: Would you cancel a subscription to a credit card if they charged you an annual fee? Why?

“Mel” shared his personal experience being a pensioner and said he always requests for the annual fee to be waived.
CIMB further shared that there are “no-annual-fee” cards out in the market that offer distinctive privileges without the gimmicks. Once you have found a credit card that does not charge an annual fee, immediately make an assessment regarding the features it offers.

Question 3: What percentage of your monthly salary do you put aside to save? How do you plan to achieve it?

This is a challenging question and “Founteterne” shared a great answer.  He saves more than 50% of his salary by living within his means.  This includes using public transport, utilising discounts and rebates, sticking to a budget when it comes to shopping, etc.  In other words, he focuses on keeping outflows lower than the available income.

CIMB agrees that living within one’s means is the way to go when saving money and adds that to make sure the money you set aside to save is in good hands, always compare savings accounts.  Find a high interest savings account that gives you higher interest when you save more, as well as the flexibility of a checking and savings account.

Question 4: What would you do if you won a million dollars today?

“Weatherman” said that he will save half of the money in a bank if he wins a million dollars, which I guess what many will do.

Here’s what CIMB suggests is an alternative to what you can do: to efficiently manage personal wealth, find a committed total wealth management scheme that delivers tailored solutions that will meet your wealth management needs. Make sure your Relationship Managers are equipped with portfolio advisory skills to guarantee that advice is delivered from a long-term financial planning perspective. Some other tools to help you manage your wealth include: wrap portfolio solutions (which allow you access to over hundreds of unit trust funds), insurance for adequate safeguarding, structured deposits, retirement planning, and child education planning.

I hope we all benefit from the wealth of information that was shared through the four questions.  CIMB certainly had an enjoyable time reading all the answers from the community and they wish to thank you all for your contributions.

Over the past few weeks we’ve made several exciting new changes to the overall Answers experience including changes to the look and feel of the site, as well as a new search experience for Yahoo! Answers.

While these changes have taken place, many of you have had questions about where we have relocated your favorite features, and what changes lie ahead. Below you’ll find some of the most commonly asked questions and their answers.

Q: Previously, I could click on “My Profile” to go straight to my profile page. This link is gone—how do I get to this page now?
A: To easily access your profile page, you can either click on your name next to the “Hello” message, or, click on the “My Activity” tab to jump straight to your profile.

Q: Below my name there’s now an “invite your friends” link—what does this do?”
A: Clicking on the “Invite your friends” link allows you to easily invite any of your friends to join you on Yahoo! Answers. From this page, you can easily enter in the email addresses of your family and friend and encourage them to join you on Answers—that way if you’ve recently asked a question on Answers and think your Aunt Sally may know the Answer but know she’s not on Answers, you can easily get her on board, and, get her to answer your question!

Please note that if you’re a Level 1 member, instead of seeing “invite your friends” you’ll instead see a link reading, “What are points and levels?,” encouraging you to learn more about Answers. For members who are level 2 and higher, you’ll be seeing this link added in under the “About” tab in the near future.

Q: How do I see my suggested questions?
A: If you have suggested questions, they’ll show up on your homepage as they did before. Currently, we don’t have a message in place that tells you “there are no suggested questions available at this time” but we’re looking to add this back in the near future.

Q: How do I see my recent activity details?
A: To see your recent activity details, just click on the “My Activity” tab—from here, you can see your activity summary, your activity details, as well as your questions, answers, starred questions and your watchlist.

Also from this page, you can easily click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to edit the content found within your Answers profile, or, if you’re elsewhere on the Answers site, just hover back on the “My Activity” tab and click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to be taken to the same edit screen.

Q: Now that you’ve changed the look and feel of Answers, what’s next?
A: We always have a few tricks up our sleeve, so be on the lookout for new things heading your way. In the meantime, we still love hearing your thoughts about the new homepage and the changes to search, so please keep the constructive feedback coming!

If you have additional “how-to” questions about the new homepage or search, or, just want to tell us what you think, please leave a comment below!

Hi guys,

First, thank you for the valuable comments posted on the suggestion board about our new Yahoo! Answers home page. Thank you for your thoughts!

By the way, I found plenty of great questions today. These are the ones I really liked:

- Which laptop is better? Asked by Little
- How do I wash denim jeans correctly? Asked by Andrisnake
- I am looking for tennis coach around Orchard area, Singapore. Any recommendation? Asked by Eliza
- I am going on a Star Cruise for 2 nights to Malaysia from Singapore. Do I need a Malaysian visa? Asked by Starry

You may think these are pretty simple and plain, but hey, Yahoo! Answers is a place for everyone to share practical knowledge. We’re so glad that you’re asking about stuff that is relevant and interesting to Singapore.

One more thing. I’ve already uploaded these questions on top of the page, in a section we call “Best of Answers.” That way, the best questions we get more eyeballs! So please keep contributing and I will keep featuring great questions! If you want to know how I select the best questions, look here

Have a good day!

As a part of the recent changes to Yahoo! Answers, we will also be rolling out a few changes to the search experience over the next few days.

We’ve taken the feedback you’ve provided and have incorporated your comments to improve the current search experience. Through the new search experience, you’ll notice a new, re-designed layout on your search results page, making it easier to refine your search without having to leave the page.

1- We’ve taken all of the options which were previously available in Advanced Search and moved them to the left-hand-side of this page to make it easier to customize your search queries.

2 – The category dropdown has been re-structured to fit this new design.

3- For those of you who perform the same search regularly, we’ve also thought of you: we’ve replaced the `Make this my default search option` with the `My Saved Search` feature. `My Saved Search` allows you to save your favourite search so you can easily access the results from anywhere on Yahoo! Answers. By checking this box Answers will store your most frequent searches. You can then click on the `My Saved Search` link next to the `Search Answers` button to access your saved search from wherever you are on the site.

You can find out more about making the most of `My Saved Search` by checking out this help article: http://help.yahoo.com/l/sg/yahoo/answers/overview/overview-7163233.html

As with all of the changes we’re making at the moment we’d love to hear your feedback. Leave us a comment here on the blog or on the feedback thread on the Suggestion board